Posted!

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

On March 5, 2019, Springfield City Council members expressed points of view about buffer zones around schools, daycares and churches mandated by Amendment 2 for medical marijuana business zoning. Local governments may choose to adjust the standard-issue 1,000-foot buffer in the Amendment. The dark yellow parts of this map shows places where dispensaries could be located if council adopts a 200-foot buffer, city staff's main proposal. City of Springfield

The dark yellow parts of this map of Springfield show where medical marijuana dispensaries could be located with a 500-foot buffer from churches, schools and daycares. The light yellow dots show the 500-foot buffers. City of Springfield

The dark yellow parts of this map of Springfield show where medical marijuana dispensaries could be located with a 1,000-foot buffer from churches, schools and daycares. The light yellow dots show the 1,000-foot buffers. City of Springfield

Interested in this topic? You may also want to view these photo galleries:

Facing a five-month countdown until Missouri must begin accepting applications for medical marijuana business licenses, Springfield City Council heard the first proposals Tuesday about how to regulate the location of marijuana businesses inside city limits.

After they heard the proposals put together by city staff, elected officials and others went over some of the key issues at play.

Mayor Ken McClure wondered aloud how council members should balance their oaths to the U.S. Constitution and federal law, which outlaws cannabis as a Schedule I drug, and the Missouri Constitution, which now mandates a medical marijuana system that will touch every area of the state.

As they discussed possible dispensary locations, Councilwoman Jan Fisk said, "This has the potential of how many millions of sales tax revenue, and I want to contain it all in the city and not the county, no offense."

Councilman Craig Hosmer made repeated comments of concern that Springfield's future marijuana businesses, especially dispensaries, could end up being located too close to children for his comfort.

And Springfield Police Chief Paul Williams detailed effects that he believes medical marijuana is likely to have on Springfield crime, citing conversations with his counterparts in Colorado.

Buy Photo

Springfield Planning and Development Director Mary Lilly Smith presented City Council with staff recommendations for how Springfield should manage zoning for medical marijuana businesses at a meeting March 5, 2019.(Photo: Greg Holman/News-Leader)

Police there tell Williams that Colorado experienced more serious problems with the legalization of recreational or "adult-use" marijuana in 2012. Colorado has had a constitutionally mandated medical marijuana system since 2000.

Already, said Chief Williams, people pulled over at traffic stops in Springfield try to tell officers "Hey, medical use is legal" or "I have a card in Colorado. It's valid here."

He said he also expects more crashes and DWI-type incidents due to cannabis.

Williams said a new tax-free black market of illegal marijuana sales is likely to emerge in the shadow of the legal market for medical marijuana.

Williams also expects to enforce Missouri's prohibition on smoking marijuana in public, both by legal marijuana patients and those without patient cards.

Williams said he does not think legalizing all adult-use marijuana would be a good idea in Missouri.

"It’s my hope we don’t ever get there," he told council. "We can deal with what we have now. But switching over to recreational is where all of these crime problems, violent crimes related to that as well, exponentially increase."

Picking applicants

The public also got a look at how Missouri might score applications from those seeking one of the four types of marijuana-related business licenses in the new medical system.

Amendment 2 mandates that dispensaries, cultivation operations, manufacturing facilities and product-testing facilities each have their own type of license awarded by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Applications must be taken starting Aug. 3.

Dispensary applicants would be evaluated in part on the suitability of their location and accessibility to patients.

The 192 dispensaries, where qualifying patients will buy cannabis, have to be equally divided among Missouri’s eight congressional districts, according to the amendment. This rule means that the 7th District, including Springfield, Branson and Joplin, is virtually guaranteed to have 24 dispensaries in operation sometime in early 2020.

But the other three types of businesses could be located anywhere in the state, concentrated — or spread out.

The dark yellow parts of this map of Springfield show where medical marijuana dispensaries could be located with a 1,000-foot buffer from churches, schools and daycares. The light yellow dots show the 1,000-foot buffers.(Photo: City of Springfield)

The 1,000-foot rule

Local governments can't prohibit medical marijuana businesses under Amendment 2. But the medical marijuana amendment leaves a degree of leeway for local governments to decide where those businesses can be located, provided they don't make "unduly burdensome" regulations.

The amendment requires that no new medical marijuana facility be placed within 1,000 feet of an existing elementary or secondary school, child daycare or church.

But it also allows local governments to adjust the 1,000-foot rule to create smaller buffer zones, if they wish.

The dark yellow parts of this map of Springfield show where medical marijuana dispensaries could be located if the city adopted a 200-foot buffer around churches, schools and daycares. Light yellow parts of the map show the buffers.(Photo: City of Springfield)

Dispensaries

City staff recommended loosening up the 1,000-foot rule for dispensaries.

Planning Director Mary Lilly Smith showed council members three maps with different options for how Springfield could regulate dispensary locations — either with a 200-foot buffer from day cares, schools and churches; a 500-foot buffer; or the standard-issue 1,000-foot buffer.

Councilman Craig Hosmer objected to the smaller buffer proposals. He noted that tobacco is banned for youngsters, but that doesn't keep plenty of it from finding its way into their hands.

"I’m not going to vote for 200 feet," he said. "I think that’s bad public policy."

Smith gestured at the 1,000-foot buffer map for dispensary zoning, dotted with yellow blobs marking out the buffer areas where Springfield could ban dispensaries.

"This blob in the center is downtown," she said, tracing a swatch of Springfield's middle where historic churches are prevalent, along with schools and day cares. "Our concern there is we think that really limits patient accessibility and might be viewed as unduly burdensome."

Smith also said downtown Springfield community improvement district officials were almost all in favor of locating a dispensary downtown, "with the exception of one board member."

Mayor McClure directed staff to write amendments based on Hosmer's comments so council could consider a 1,000-foot buffer around dispensaries.

A recurring theme emerged as council debated dispensaries: Missouri is still writing its regulations for the new medical marijuana system, having only released draft rules for patient ID cards so far.

Thus, it's hard for anyone to answer key marijuana zoning questions that kept coming up at Tuesday's council lunch: How much security will the dispensaries have? Can anyone enter the premises, or just people with state ID cards granting access to marijuana?

Council members consulted Assistant City Attorney Tom Rykowski on the matter.

"We’re probably out ahead of state on that particular aspect," Rykowski said. "They’re going to be heavily regulating this."

A spokeswoman for Missouri's Department of Health and Senior Services told the News-Leader in a Tuesday email that the next batch of draft rules should be published "within a month."

The bright purple parts of this map of Springfield show the proposed zoning districts where licensed medical marijuana cultivation greenhouses could be located. The yellow dots are buffer areas surrounding churches, elementary and secondary schools and daycares.(Photo: City of Springfield)

Grow operations

For cultivation facilities, staff recommends leaving the 1,000-foot rule as-is. Smith, city planning director, said she expects grow operations here to be similar to indoor greenhouses. Missouri weather isn't great for outdoor cannabis plants.

Legal indoor growing businesses would be allowed in parts of the city already zoned for seven types of industrial and commercial activities. Those districts are mostly concentrated in northwest Springfield, northeast Springfield and some patches of the city’s south side.

Anybody who wanted to put a grow operation directly adjacent to a residential zoning district would have to ask the city for a conditional use permit.

Getting one of those permits would mean following 21 conditions already outlined in city ordinances, but marijuana grow operations would also need a ventilation system to keep odors inside the premises. They could only operate from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Use of marijuana on the property would be prohibited, as would any outdoor operations or storage.

Odors were a concern for council members including Phyllis Ferguson, who represents Zone 1 on the northwest side.

"I was in an Airbnb in Seattle two or three years ago, and you could smell marijuana during the day if you stepped outside," she said. "I didn't stay outside very long."

Only about two marijuana product testing facility licenses will be awarded in Missouri. If one is located in Springfield, proposed zoing rules would allow it in the pink parts of the map. Yellow parts show 1,000-foot buffers around churches, schools and daycares(Photo: City of Springfield)

Testing facilities

Amendment 2 calls for at least two licenses statewide for testing facilities similar to existing medical testing labs, but for marijuana.

"We may not get one in Springfield," Smith said. "But these would probably be the highest-paying jobs in this industry, so we can hope that we get one."

Under the staff proposal, if Springfield gets a product-testing facility, it would have to follow the 1,000-foot rule just like the dispensaries.

A testing facility could be located in many of the same parts of the city as a grow operation, mainly in northwest and northeast Springfield. The Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association recommended testing facilities be placed in “light industrial” zoning districts, so staff recommended five types of Springfield industrial and manufacturing zones where they could go.

Marijuana extraction facilities that use powerful gases and chemicals to get THC-rich oil out of the cannabis plant would be located in the purple parts of this map of Springfield under proposed zoning rules. The yellow dots are buffer zones around churches, schools and daycares.(Photo: City of Springfield)

Manufacturing

The category is something of a catch-all. Some manufacturing operations that extract THC-rich oil from the marijuana plant could involve the use of butane, propane or carbon dioxide.

Other manufacturing operations could look like small bakeries for marijuana-infused edibles like candies or brownies.

They could also make items like ointments, tinctures and concentrates.

So city staff proposed making a distinction between "extraction facilities" and "post-extraction facilities."

The extraction sites where oil is extracted with powerful gases and chemicals would be restricted to general manufacturing and heavy manufacturing zones. The 1,000-foot rule would apply, and like the grow operations, a manufacturer would need a conditional use permit with similar requirements if they wanted to open up next to a residential zone.

Post-extraction facilities like small bakeries and ointment producers would be evaluated by staff case-by-case to determine whether zoning for retail sales use group or industrial/wholesale would be appropriate. Those smaller facilities would get a 200-foot buffer rule, under staff's proposal.

What's next?

The clock is ticking until Aug. 3, the date Missouri must begin accepting marijuana business license applications.

Councilman Andy Lear said, "Our timetable is fairly tight, given that people need to be identifying actual locations and know where they are headed."

Smith said planning staff will draft new zoning requirements by March 13. They want to get them in front of the planning and zoning commission for a March 28 meeting, then to City Council on April 8 for a public hearing. Council may vote to adopt finalized medical marijuana rules on April 22.

"The intent would be for our zoning requirements to be in place," Smith said, "allowing those interested in doing any type of the (application) options available to be able to file something on Aug. 3."